WILMINGTON -- Bruins coach Claude Julien was asked, after Monday's practice, what he thought the Bruins' biggest issue was during their recent skid.

Julien wasted no time saying that his team needs to do a lot better job keeping the puck out of its own net. But he didn't blame that on his goaltending. He blamed it on the defensive-zone play in front of Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask.

"This is a team that, through the course of the year, has been pretty stingy," said Julien. "And lately, we haven't been.

"Our game as a whole, in the defensive zone, we've had a lot of breakdowns, and a lot of bad penalties at bad times, that have resulted in goals as well," added Julien.

"The whole thing needs to be cleaned up, but if we're going to start winning some hockey games, especially this week against pretty good teams, we're going to have to be a lot stingier."

Julien was also asked about the emotions Rask shows on the ice after letting up a goal, and said that sometimes he'd like to see the goalie control himself more.

"I don't support that, and I don't think anybody supports that, including him," said Julien. "Sometimes frustration sets in. You see players when they're breaking their sticks after a goal against, or you see them putting their heads up in the air, after they miss an open net. There's a frustration part, so I'm certainly not going to stand here and start accusing him of that. But yeah, I think it's something that you don't want to see from anybody, because it has a big impact on your team."

Danny Picard is on Twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard. You can listen to Danny on his streaming radio show I'm Just Sayin' Monday-Friday from 9-10 a.m. on CSNNE.com.